I'm not 'crazy for you'

Famed farce writer Ken Ludwig pulled off a wonderful adaptation of 1930s theater with his play "Crazy for You," which played Tuesday and Wednesday at the IU Auditorium. Much like the 1930s theater era he recreated, the heavy spectacle weighed down the air-light plot.\nLudwig's play is an adaptation of the 1930 Gershwin play "Girl Crazy," which Ludwig uses as a vehicle to sum up a period of history in commercial American theater when no one wanted a Berthold Brechtian catharsis when they went to the theater; they wanted to be entertained. The entertainment of choice consisted of spectacle in the form of bright lights, stunning costumes and the synchronized choreography of kick lines.\n"Crazy for You" was written after both of the Gershwins died. Ludwig came along with his version, decided on the songs he wanted to use and then wrote a show around them. When you're watching it, you notice the plot is virtually non-existent and virtually none of the music does anything at all to advance whatever plot exists. Ken Ludwig is a playwright whose talent is evident with hits like "Moon Over Buffalo," and "Lend Me a Tenor," so it's doubtful one could say "Crazy for You" is a bad script. On the contrary, it's a very good script, and it has to be because only something that good could successfully re-create an era filled with so much bad theater.\nI'm going have to recognize the cast for taking such a good script and performing it to its full potential. There was plenty of spectacle with the kick lines, the human cellos and the brightly colored costumes made even more brilliant by working in tandem with the lighting.\nBut while I'm celebrating the reproduction of an era, I'm not celebrating the show. One of the lines sums up my thought best: "In two thousand years, there's only been one resurrection, and it wasn't a theater." \n"Crazy for You" is by no means a resurrection of good theater. The show's first act was slow to move because it was so weighted down by superfluous musical numbers. I felt like the numbers used in the show came from a mold and mildew-ridden trunk recently found that belonged to the Gershwins. I guess that tells you how much THEY would have liked it.\nOnce in a while, a song made sense, but I felt like if someone said, "Hey, that's a nice sandwich you've got there," everyone ran on stage and jumped around singing about muskrats and kangaroos.\nIn short, the IU Auditorium played host to a bad show, but they were instrumental in helping to preserve an important piece of America's theater history and in helping to honor two of its best known musical duos.